


dark night, morning light

by RENielsen



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Dogs, Drunkenness, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Strangers, past break up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 10:16:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17201633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RENielsen/pseuds/RENielsen
Summary: As expected then Clifford is sitting outside, tail wagging happily. What Louis doesn’t expect is the stranger sitting beside him, half hugging the dog, half trying to pet him.“Such a good boy,” the lad hiccups into Cliff’s fur. There’s a slight slur to his words, and Louis has no doubts in his mind that he’s drunk. That would also possibly explain why he thought it’d be a good idea to break into someone’s backyard in the middle of the night. The lad then loudly whispers to the dog, “Let me tell you a secret. Dogs are the greatest. Don’t listen to anyone telling you otherwise.”





	dark night, morning light

**Author's Note:**

> Soft nouis fluff because that's what I need in life right now. Thank you for reading! :)

Louis' eyes flutter open at the sound of a whisper yell from outside his window. Confused he looks around, but the room is still dark, and when Louis glances at his phone he sees how it’s only a little over three in the morning. His first instinct is to curl around his dog and go back to sleep, ignoring the sound that’s probably just some idiots passing by not caring about everyone who’s trying to get some sleep before they have to go to work in the morning. Clifford isn’t in his bed anymore though, and Louis groans. That usually only means one thing.

He huffs as he sits up in bed. Before getting out, he pulls his blanket around him. As he walks out of the bedroom, he tries calling for Cliff, but the damn dog doesn’t come, and he isn’t to be seen anywhere either.

Giving up on trying to find him inside, Louis makes his way towards the living room where he already knows the door to the backyard will be open. Somehow Cliff has found out how to open the door, so he can get outside. Louis wouldn’t really mind it all that much if he wasn’t worried that the too smart dog also figures out how to open the gate. Even though the dog is a pain in the arse sometimes, like right now, then Louis would miss him if he ran away from home.

As expected then Clifford is sitting outside, tail wagging happily. What Louis doesn’t expect is the stranger sitting beside him, half hugging the dog, half trying to pet him.

“Such a good boy,” the lad hiccups into Cliff’s fur. There’s a slight slur to his words, and Louis has no doubts in his mind that he’s drunk. That would also possibly explain why he thought it’d be a good idea to break into someone’s backyard in the middle of the night. The lad then loudly whispers to the dog, “Let me tell you a secret. Dogs are the greatest. Don’t listen to anyone telling you otherwise.”

Louis doesn’t really know what to do about the whole thing. Clifford obviously doesn’t see the boy as a threat, and Louis can’t really get himself to be mad about seeing him in there. It’s not like he’s caused any damage as far as Louis can see. It’s still weird, though, and how do you go about this whole thing anyway?

“Uh… Are you alright?” he ends up asking, when the lad just keeps muttering to the dog, not having noticed him yet.

The boy’s eyes become comically huge, as he pulls back from the dog enough to look at him closer. The dog that’s it. “You can talk?!” he whispers excited, and yup, he still hasn’t noticed Louis.

With a sigh, Louis steps closer and crouches down beside the two. “Nah, mate, he can’t, but I can.”

The lad looks up at him finally, and his eyes that were already huge somehow manages to become even bigger. Even in the dark Louis can see the blue in his eyes, but also how bloodshot and raised they are. How there’s dried tears down his cheeks. He’s got bags under his eyes as well like he hasn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in weeks.

“Hi,” he breathes out, blinking slowly up at Louis. He then proceeds to bend over and throw up right on Louis’ feet.

Louis’ mind goes blank. He’s got vomit on his feet, and a drunk out of his mind lad sitting in his backyard and petting his dog. He really doesn’t know how to go from here at all. Especially not because the lad looks rather pathetic, and like he’s three seconds from either bursting into tears or falling asleep leaned against Cliff.

“Stay there, please,” he ends up saying. Luckily the lad listens to him, though that could also just be because he isn’t able to go anywhere on his own in his condition. He tries not to gag as he finds the hose and washes the puke off his feet. A small shriek leaves him when the cold water hits his skin, but it still makes him feel immediately better as soon as he’s clean again. Gosh, that was gross!

When Louis gets back, Cliff is still patiently waiting, and the boy looks half asleep.

“Don’t get a soft spot for him now,” he mutters to the dog, though he just gets a happy wagging in return.

He looks at the boy for a while longer, eventually agreeing with himself that he can’t really just send him on his mere way. He’d just get himself in trouble, and Louis doesn’t want to feel bad if he ever found out anything happened to the lad and Louis didn’t do anything to help. He doesn’t look dangerous or threatening at all either, so he doesn’t mind the thought of letting him into his house all that much either. It’s not like Louis has anything really worth stealing anyway.

“C’mon now, lad,” he ends up saying. He carefully wraps his fingers around the lad’s wrist and pulls him up. The boy almost falls over, and with a sigh, Louis puts his arm around his waist instead to keep him on his feet.

The smell of alcohol is overwhelming now that Louis is closer to him, and he feels cold like he’s been wandering around for ages outside. He’s not even wearing a jacket, and Louis shivers just thinking about it. He’s so thankful for the blanket still wrapped around him.

It’s a bit of a slow progress getting the boy with him inside. Cliff follows nicely on the other side of the boy, which also means he at some points gets a bit in the way as he tries to keep right against his leg. The boy doesn’t really need any more challenges to walk as he’s already wobbly on his feet, but Louis can’t find it in him to scold the dog. Especially because the lad also has his fingers wrapped into Cliff’s fur like the dog is the best thing that has ever happened to him.

Louis manages to get him inside, and as far as to the sofa before he decides that must be good enough. The boy goes down easily enough, and he’s snoring softly as soon as his head hits the cushion. For a moment Louis just stands there, but then he unwraps himself from the blanket and lays it on top of the boy, so he won’t freaking freeze to death through the night. Cliff looks up at him and whines pathetically.

“Go on then,” he says and rolls his eyes. Happily, the dog jumps up onto the sofa and curls together on top of the boy’s feet. “Traitor,” he can’t help but say as he watches the dog settle down. He can’t believe his bed buddy leaves him for the first and the best drunk person napping on his couch.

The small snores continue as Louis closes the door to the backyard, and then proceeds to tape the handle to the doorframe to be totally sure he won’t find Cliff outside when he wakes up in a couple of hours. He needs a backyard door that’s dog-proof.

He hesitates for a bit before leaving the boy alone in his living room. It’s weird having a stranger in his house and in the middle of the night none the less.

“No trouble now, from either of you!” The words are aimed at Cliff, but the dog doesn’t even give him as much as a glance in return for his trouble. Alright then.

He goes back to bed, happy for the second blanket in his bed that Cliff usually sleeps on top. It’d be too fucking cold to sleep without anything, and Louis hates freezing more than anything. Everything considered then he falls asleep quite easily. He doesn’t spend much time at all before he’s dead to the world.

His alarm wakes him up at six, and Louis feels like he’s close to dying. He’s supposed to get out of bed and get ready for work, but right at that moment, it’s the last thing in the world he’d want to do. Slowly he remembers why exactly he’s this tired this morning, and that yup he’s actually got a stranger in his house. It doesn’t take much convincing himself, for him to call in sick for the day. It’s been quite a night and Louis deserves it. Just as he deserves going back to sleep for a couple of hours longer. He doesn’t really worry about the stranger waking up anytime soon either, not with how drunk he was last night and with how tired he looked.

The next time he wakes up it’s almost eleven am, and while it is a much more reasonable time then Louis still considers just staying in bed and napping all day. In the end, he gets up, but only because he’s too curious to see if the boy is still there.

Quietly he makes his way into the living room, but he doesn’t even have to enter the room to know he’s still there. The soft snore can be heard as Louis closes in on the living room. He stops up without going in there. Instead, he leans against the doorframe and watches the boy still sleeping on the sofa. Clifford has moved since last night and is now laying completely on top of the boy, stretching from where his head is rested on the boy’s chest and all the way down to where his paw is touching the boy’s feet. It’s like the dog insisted on touching as much as the boy as possible. It’s an incredibly cute sight, especially when he notices how the lad has got his arms around the dog pulling him in for a hug.

Clifford looks up at him for a second but then deems that his new friend is more important as he rests his head back on the boy.

 _Stupid dog_ , Louis thinks, but he also can’t quite stop the smile that starts showing on his face.

He starts feeling like a creep after having just stood there for a few minutes watching the other. Deciding that the lad probably will need something in his stomach after the night he’s had, Louis makes his way into the kitchen. While Louis isn’t that much of a cook, he still knows how to fry bacon and make an omelette. The fact that he has a tendency to burn even that is a minor detail.

The food turns out fine enough. He throws out the most burned pieces of bacon and puts the rest on two plates along with the omelettes. Normally he would have shared his breakfast with Cliff, but the dog really doesn’t deserve his bacon after basically turning his back to Louis. Only loyal dogs get bacon for breakfast!

He’s pouring water in the second cup for tea when he hears careful footsteps approach. He doesn’t turn around and instead finishes what he’s doing. He dumps the teabags in the cups and carries both cups over to the table.

The boy is standing in the door, looking bleary-eyed and confused. The brown hair is ruffled to all sides, but the morning hair looks adorable on him. He’s not wearing any shoes anymore, and as Louis most definitely forgot to remove those then he must have kicked them off himself in his sleep. His cheeks are flushed slightly from sleeping, which is very easy to see against his pale skin. Cliff sits by his feet like the traitor he is.

“I’ve made breakfast,” Louis says chipperly, taking a seat by the table. He uses a spoon to stir the tea around. He watches the colour closely, picking the teabag up when it’s just right. Louis may not know much about cooking, but he sure does make a great cuppa.

When the boy doesn’t make a move at all, Louis adds, “C’mon, lad, take a seat and eat something. Looks like you need it.”

He finally does as he’s told and sits down opposite of Louis by the extra plate.

“Uhm, hi?” the boy says awkwardly. Louis takes a sip of his tea to hide the grin on his face. If the boy remembers anything at all about last night, then he’s honestly going to be impressed. He’s outta feel really confused about this whole thing.

“Hi,” Louis says in return. He keeps his cup in his hands, and just patiently waits for the boy to pick his own up and take a sip before asking, “So you’ve got a habit of breaking into stranger’s backyards to pet their dogs in the middle of the night?”

The boy both almost completely stills at the words, but also manages to almost choke himself on the tea. He splutters and coughs as he tries to get the tea down the right pipe.

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry,” the lad groans. He puts the tea down and hides his face in his hands. Louis can see how the tip of his ears reddens cutely. He talks a bit funny even now that he isn’t drunk out of his mind. There’s an accent in there that Louis can’t quite place, but it seems washed out too like he’s been here for a long time.

Louis just shrugs even though the boy isn’t even looking at him. While the whole thing was quite an inconvenience in the middle of the night, and while the boy did break into his backyard, steal his dog, puke on his feet, and sleep through the night on Louis’ couch then Louis still has a hard time minding all that much. It probably helps that the boy is easy on the eyes and looks too cute having just woken up.

“Tell me your name?” he asks, being tired of thinking of him as a nameless stranger.

“You’re not going to call the police on me, right?” The boy goes for joking, but the way he’s still not looking at Louis and how his whole body looks tense tells Louis that there’s some part of him that also asks sincerely. When Louis shakes his head and says “Nah, mate,” the boy gains some of his posture and looks up at Louis. “I’m Niall,” he murmurs, still not very confidently but at least it doesn’t seem like he’s going to flee out of the door at any second anymore either.  

Louis holds his gaze, a smile forming on his lips when the flush on Niall’s face deepens. “I’m Louis, and the traitor at your feet is called Clifford,” he offers in return. Clifford wags his tail at the mention of his name. The dog looks up at him with a real doggy smile, tongue hanging out of his mouth as he pants loudly. He wriggles closer to Niall like he wasn’t already almost lying plastered against Niall’s legs.

Not saying much else, Louis starts eating his breakfast. Niall hesitates to do the same, but eventually, he starts shovelling the food into his mouth. At least it doesn’t seem like he's hungover enough to feel nauseous. Surprisingly enough, then he doesn’t seem hungover at all. Louis can’t help but feel a bit jealous about that. The last time he was even half as wasted as Niall was last night, he’s been hunched over the toilet for hours after waking up, puking his guts out.

 Niall finishes up before him, and Louis laughs when Niall eyes the last of the food on his plate.

“There’s cereal in the cupboard if you’re still hungry,” Louis says, taking another bit of his food.

“Oh no, there’s really no need. I don’t wanna be any more trouble.” The guilty look is back on his face, and he stays seated even though he obviously is still hungry. Louis ends up pushing the rest of his plate over in front of Niall.

“Eat up, lad.” Niall looks like he’s going to start protesting so Louis adds, “Either you eat it, or I’m giving it to Clifford.” That shuts him up before he can even really start making a noise. A bit slower he eats the rest of Louis’ food, looking too happy with every bite considering the food definitely still has got a couple of burned spots that Louis didn’t bother removing. How refreshing to actually have someone eat his food without complaining. Now he isn’t sure Niall would be just as forgiving if he hadn’t been starving after a night out, but that’s a minor detail.

It’s easier than he thought it’d be, settling down with his mug in his hands, just watching as Niall finishes up eating. The silence isn’t awkward, as it might as well could have turned out, and instead it’s surprisingly cosy having someone there with him in the morning. It’s been years since Louis last had anyone to wake up with, and he realises then that he’s missed not being alone.

Niall places his fork against the plate once there isn’t any more food, and he looks surprisingly content as he takes a sip of the tea. He looks up at Louis and smiles shyly.

“Thanks. For the food, and you know being so nice about the whole thing.”

“Sure, no problem. You wanna talk, though? Like I don’t know you, but if I had to guess you didn’t end up in a stranger’s backyard drunk out of your mind just because you had a good time. Are you alright?”

Niall bites his lip, and the smile dims on his face. There’s definitely something nagging him then. Louis doesn’t push it, even though he really wants to. He’s got this feeling that Niall won’t talk if he’s being forced. He needs to make that decision himself, and Louis really thinks he needs to let it out. So, he waits. Niall seems caught up in thoughts, a frown showing on his face. Louis doesn’t really like the look of that. It looks all wrong compared to the small smile Louis got just before.

A bit hesitantly Niall starts talking. He explains how his boyfriend decided to fuck off to LA without as much as talking to Niall about it. Got offered some fancy job over there, that he simply couldn’t say no to, and that apparently it was more important than Niall was. And it’s not that Niall wouldn’t have supported him, he just wanted a say in the matter like a healthy couple should have. They had a big fight about it, and Niall had stayed at a friend’s place for the night, but his boyfriend was already gone when Niall came back the day after.

“He could just as well never have been there at all,” Niall says, looking down into his hands. “Like all his stuff was gone, and he didn’t even bother leaving a note. I haven’t seen the idiot in almost a month, and then last night I got a letter from him. A bloody fucking letter just saying he was sorry. Too much of a coward to face me or even call to say sorry. All I was worth was a damn letter. The first two weeks was a mess, but I was starting to do better, and then a couple of words were enough to fuck that up again. I’m sorry if I was being a pain last night, but I really don’t remember all that much.”

“Hey, don’t be sorry. The guy’s a dick, and you didn’t deserve that,” Louis frowns. Without thinking he reaches out for Niall’s hand. The boy looks down confused to where Louis is holding his hand, and Louis feels equally confused. He doesn’t really want to let go, though, and Niall doesn’t push him away.

After a few seconds of just looking at their hands, Niall turns his own around, so he can hold on to Louis’ as well. There’s a flutter in Louis’ belly when Niall gives his hand a small squeeze.

“Besides you only threw up on my feet, and stole my dog, no big deal.” Louis can’t stand the way just holding Niall’s hand is making him feel, and the words are out of his mouth before he can really stop himself. Niall groans, but also starts laughing at the words.

“I’m really sorry about your feet, but I’m definitely keeping Clifford. Yeah, not letting you go now!” He bends down to pet Cliff, and Louis doesn’t think he’s ever seen the dog look as ecstatic as when the boy pays him attention. His face meets Niall’s free hand and rubs against it as if to tell him to never leave. Louis kinda gets the feeling, and he holds Niall’s hand a little tighter.

“You can’t just run off with my dog, lad!”

“But I can finally have a dog in my flat now, though! No stupid boyfriend to tell me otherwise just because he liked cats better. And don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him,” Niall says slyly with a smirk on his face.

They keep bantering for a while. Louis keeps holding Niall’s hand, and the other lad lets him. Clifford settles down again once again, though this time sitting with his head resting in Niall’s lap, so the boy can keep petting him. Eventually, they go from bantering to just talking, and Louis finds that he enjoys listening to Niall talk very much.

He finds out that Niall’s working an internship at some record label and that he’s studying music. He wants to be a big artist, make his own music and tour the whole world. Louis can see that. It’s easy to imagine Niall on a stage, absolutely captivating the crowd. Mostly because he’s so easily captivating Louis by just talking. With a laugh, he says that until that happens then he’s okay with writing songs for other artists and working a bit more behind the scenes. Louis is very impressed when Niall tells that he’s been working on a song for someone, and it’s almost sure that they’ll put it on their album.

He likes sports too, footie which Louis is very excited about, and golf which he kindly chooses to forget about. What an old-man sport if Louis has ever seen any. He’s smart, talks about a lot of things Louis isn’t really sure he totally understands, like lots of facts about the universe that Louis will never know what to do with now that he’s been told. He cares about politics which he has some very strong opinions about. Niall laughs a lot. He laughs whenever Louis says something funny, and he laughs when he comes with jokes on his own. Louis can’t help but grin pleased whenever Niall laughs. He’s kind and talks about his family and friends with a lot of care. He likes dogs and Clifford basically loves him already.

Basically, he’s pretty fucking close to perfect, if Louis ignores the big flaw of the love for golf.

“How was your ex ever able to leave you behind?” he ends up blurting out, not able to stop himself. Surprised with himself he can feel the warmth in his face, and he’s pretty sure he’s matching the pink colour on Niall’s face. The boy’s eyes widen a little, but he also looks so pleased with himself.

“Because he’s a fool,” Niall says, bursting into laughter as if he’s joking.

“Oh, he definitely is,” Louis agrees, meaning it with all his heart. He wouldn’t be able to let Niall go if it’d been him. He’s not even sure he’ll be able to let him go now.

Every feature on Niall’s face softens, and the blush deepens. He smiles at Louis, the smallest most genuine smile that brings up the dimple in his cheek. The fondness in his eyes says the exact same thing Louis is thinking. _This is a good one. Don’t let them go._

**Author's Note:**

> A post for the fic can be reblogged on tumblr [here](http://nialliesmiley.tumblr.com/post/181497501168/dark-night-morning-light-niall-horanlouis) if you wanna!


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